Monday, February 9, 2009

LEGACY

Now who what have thought it? A black man with a credible chance of becoming Governor of Alabama and it ain’t Charles Barkley.

Reading that announcement bothers me though. It actually makes me really angry. Why isn’t it a Republican running? What happened to the Party of Lincoln, the Grand Old Party whose members would fling the bloody shirt to remind us all we were the party that backed the Union and freed the slaves? What happened to the party that fought year after year to protect blacks from the lynch noose?

Why don’t more than 12% of black Americans feel comfortable voting for a party that was founded to free men and women of color still being held in bondage? Why do we allow Democrats and liberals to hijack our legacy? It was the greatest President this country has ever seen, Abe Lincoln, who satisfied the broken promise of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal and yet it is the other side that speaks of a post-racial society. It is the Democrats who celebrate the election of the nation’s first black President, one of them. I would imagine Lincoln, Thaddeus Stevens, Everett Dirksen and the rest of the conservative Republicans who spent their careers and risked their very lives at times would be weeping with both joy and sadness. Happy that a nation born with the birth defect of slavery would one day elect a man of color President but also grieving over the fact that their party turned its back on such a wonderful history. Now is the time to turn to our history, to re-claim our legacy.

This February, two important events are occurring simultaneously. The celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People. This organization was founded by profoundly conservative, profoundly Republican African-Americans. The second event is the celebration of the Bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln started it all for us, without that man there would be no Republican Party.

Let us commit to taking our message of limited government, low taxes and social responsibility to all corners of society. Let us recognize that the crippling grip of over-regulation destroys both black-owned and white-owned businesses. Let us recognize high payroll taxes take money out of the pockets of both black and white consumers. Let us recognize that terrorism threatens white lives as well as black ones. Let us recognize abortion affects black women the same way it does white women – a precious, young life is prevented from seeing the light of day. If we can recognize these things that will be the first step in making our party truly national and truly inclusive.